New Haven biotech center fills, new spaces coming
As the Winchester Works life sciences building nears full occupancy, the Westchester County, N.Y. developer making over the former arms factory is building three smaller laboratory and office spaces on speculation.
Jake Pine, senior director with LMXD, said the three 5,000square-foot spaces that will be built over the remainder of this year are targeting early stage biotech companies. The three spaces, which are located on the building’s second floor, are expected to be move-in ready either late this year or during the first quarter of 2023, Pine said.
“We feel this is going to be wildly attractive,” he said Thursday. “We’ve lost out on a couple of deals because did not have space that could be moved into immediately. That’s what convinced us to do this.”
Ginny Kozlowski, chief executive officer of REX Development / Economic Development Corp. of New Haven, said building lab space on spec “is unusual, but there is high demand out there, so there is market confidence.”
“Every space that is already completed is completely filled,”
Kozlowski said.
Once those lab/office suites are occupied, the only vacancy that will remain in the 140,000 squarefoot building is an adjacent 10,000 square foot space on the second floor. Pine envisions that as a logical space for the early stage companies could grow into.
Current tenants in Winchester Works include:
Halda Therapeutics, which moved into the building in 2021.
Quantum-Si, which moved in earlier this year.
Winchester Works is part of the redevelopment of the former Winchester
Arms complex, which is located in the city’s Prospect Hill neighborhood. The building is the first stage of the Winchester Center master plan, a multi-phase redevelopment concept that encompasses the four remaining buildings in the complex as well as the development of four other sites in Yale’s nearby Science Park.
The plan envisions as many as 1,000 apartments, retail space, and 500,000 square feet of office and lab space.